A Friendly Fire

I found this passage so overwhelmingly normal that it was surprising that there was no drama or action. This made the story monotonous and kept the reader expecting to have a snip of action pop up but there was never any climax and I felt kind of dissatisfied with the outcome of the action since there was none. I was expecting the son to die or something to happen in the warehouse the women were working at but there was no dramatic change of events. The characters were some what strange or awkward but there was nothing significant about the story with regards to the plot. The author did use rather interesting comparisons and literary devices that made the components of the piece more interesting. "...cut off as abruptly as if someone had pulled a switch, only the memory of them left like markers on the surface above deep water." I found this quote as a very interesiting and different simile because of the strange comparison. The author is comparing a fading memory to a marker and a deep water, deep water. The "deep water" represents the memory as a whole and is comparing it to a vasty and mystical place, the marker can represent just a small figment of a memory and this line caught my eye because i think it is a very clever way of stating such an ordinary thing.

Also the author used a pair of very contradictory words side by side, she wrote "like an ancient baby". This phrase gives a very effective visual description in my opinion because we get to picture the softness of a baby with ancient wrinkles. I'm not sure if this is a paradox or an oxymoron but I think that this adds an interesting element to they style and description of the character because the two words are very visual common. There is a strange simplicity in the writing style of the author that makes it a very relaxed read and I think that if she had used some of her techniques to include action or more dramatic events to the story, it would have been a very dynamic read. The author used literary devices to exaggerate or empasize a character's personality or appearance and I found that "A Friendly Fire" was interestingly written because we didn't get into the protagonist's mind but instead we were very much left to look through a window at what the character was doing almost adding a standoffish feeling. The author bounces around between Pam and Shelly very unexpectedly so we feel that the author or the narrator is in full control rather than the characters. There is very little dialogue in this short story as well. I wonder if it is because of each character's personality or because of the setting.

I also realized that Pam and Shelly are complete opposites, one is tall and skinny and the other is tubby. One is calm and relaxed, and the other is more crazy or energetic. Their rutine lives bring them together and in this case opposites work well together. I wonder why the author chose to have his leading persons in such a depressing occupation, I found that her description of the work place was rather depressing and was repelling, maybe the circumstances were made this way to give hope to the readers to expect more or to work hard in life.